For any building to come up in Uttar Pradesh, a map, like a blueprint or a house plan, has to be approved by an architect. This is done online.
But earlier this month, an architects’ body in Meerut found an anomaly — they had approved 20 maps between April and July 2 this year but the platform showed 56 had been ratified.
The trail led to what appears to be a map scam — thousands of illegitimate approvals were given out allegedly by development authority workers posing as architects for anywhere between Rs 25,000 and Rs 2 lakh each. And the network, architects said, is spread across the state.
In March last year, the state government revamped the Uttar Pradesh Online Building Plan Approval System Portal to take the process online and minimise human intervention — building maps could be created, checked and uploaded on the platform. But there were two loopholes. To use the platform, all one needed was an architect’s registration number.
The other requirement was that of a phone number. But since registration numbers and phone numbers are not linked, someone with just a registration number could enter their own phone number and get an OTP to log in. Another glaring gap allowed an architect to log in with more than one ID. So, an impostor could generate a new ID for an architect and use that to gain access.
That is what happened to an Azamgarh-based architect who found 144 approvals had been given out in Meerut using his name with a second ID created by an impostor. “When we got in touch with him, he said he had not sanctioned even one building map over the past year,” president of Meerut Architects’ Association Ankit Agarwal told TOI. “Our estimate is that at least 800 maps were approved illegally … Even the best architects here would not have approved more than 30 maps in a year.”
Soon after the Meerut cases, many others came forward. An architect from Meerut, Anil Kumar Mehra, 75, discovered that his ID was being used in Hapur’s Pilkhuwa Development Authority. “I have given an affidavit saying I have nothing to do with the approval of maps issued in Hapur and requested that the maps be cancelled,” he said. Another from Lucknow, Jitender Tripathi, stumbled upon his ID being in the Gorakhpur Development Authority. “Dozens of maps were falsely approved using my name. It’s a faulty system that’s being abused. It’s ruining our reputation,” he said.
After the operations were flagged, UP’s chief town and country planner (CTCP) Anoop Srivastava asked all development authorities in the state to file FIRs wherever these map scams were reported. “All vice chairpersons of development authorities have been asked to look into the matter after the state’s senior urban planning officials met in Lucknow,” he told TOI. “So far, 18 such IDs fraudulently created or used have been identified … We are trying to plug the platform loopholes by introducing digital signatures and linking them to Aadhaar.”
Architects said development authority workers are the “only ones” familiar with the entire approval system. “There are junior engineers and draftsmen who can easily chart maps and approve them,” an architect said. And it’s not just people looking to get away with building violations, raising buildings in unauthorised colonies or, simply, skipping the queue. “Sometimes, people go to the development authority instead of going to an architect for approval because they don’t know the new rules.”
The UP Architects’ Association is planning to take the case to court. “We have asked the authorities to cancel all such illegally approved maps,” Manish Mishra, secretary of the body, said. Srivastava was not sure: “That is a call we have to take once we know the full extent of the scam.”
